2016年09月08日
the most important of all human functions
The richness of its allegorical meaning also is due to his being there--that is, the world is all thericher for having a devil in it, SO LONG AS WE KEEP OUR FOOT
UPON HIS NECK. In thereligious consciousness, that is just the position in which the fiend, the negative or tragic principle,is found; and for that very reason the
religious consciousness is so rich from the emotional point ofview.[20] We shall see how in certain men and women it takes on a monstrously ascetic form.
There are saints who have literally fed on the negative principle, on humiliation and privation, andthe thought of suffering and death--their souls growing in
happiness just in proportion as theiroutward state grew more intolerable. No other emotion than religious emotion can bring a man tothis peculiar pass. And it is for
that reason that when we ask our question about the value ofreligion for human life, I think we ought to look for the answer among these violenter examplesrather
than among those of a more moderate hue.
[20] I owe this allegorical illustration to my lamented colleague and Friend, Charles CarrollEverett.
Having the phenomenon of our study in its acutest possible form to start with, we can shadedown as much as we please later. And if in these cases, repulsive as they
are to our ordinaryworldly way of judging, we find ourselves compelled to acknowledge religion's value and treat itwith respect, it will have proved in some way its
value for life at large. By subtracting and toningdown extravagances we may thereupon proceed to trace the boundaries of its legitimate sway.
To be sure, it makes our task difficult to have to deal so muck with eccentricities and extremes.
"How CAN religion on the whole be ," you may ask, "ifevery several manifestation of it in turn have to be corrected and
sobered down and pruned away?"Such a thesis seems a paradox impossible to sustain reasonably--yet I believe that something likeit will have to be our final
contention. That personal attitude which the individual finds himselfimpelled to take up towards what he apprehends to be the divine--and you will remember that
thiswas our definition--will prove to be both a helpless and a sacrificial attitude. That is, we shall haveto confess to at least some amount of dependence on sheer
mercy, and to practice some amount ofrenunciation, great or small, to save our souls alive.
Posted by hanfu at
12:53
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